Friday, September 22, 2017 10:58:00 AM America/Denver

The economic downturn of 2008 left us all a little wary and shell-shocked in regards to the stock market. In fact, currently 80% of young people are completely uninvolved in the stock market, and only 54% of the general American population has trades in the stock market, the lowest percentage in the last 10 years.

However, savings and investments are something that we all need to think about. It’s still the most reliable way to grow wealth and plan for retirement. Additionally, an effective investment portfolio is about more than high-risk stocks.

Friday, September 8, 2017 10:06:00 AM America/Denver

Last week, we took a look at the history of gold as a unit of currency and a base value supporting cash money. Today, we want to take a closer look at the way that the value of gold reacts in the ups and downs of a modern economy.

As previously mentioned, the value of everything is determined by supply and demand. This applies for gold just as much as anything else. One of the major differences, though, is the fact that gold has a fairly fixed supply.

Saturday, July 1, 2017 7:57:38 AM America/Denver

On this blog, we’ve talked about how international migration affects economies in the short and long term, and how immigration can provide an economic boon for a variety of reasons. However, debates about immigration and its economic impact still rage on in our political discourse, as millions of people’s lives are hanging in the balance and the single largest free migration experiment ever, the European Union, is suffering threats to its very existence.

For these reasons, it’s a good idea to look at interstate migration as a type of example of what free movement looks like for commerce. While interstate migration is far less complicated than international migration, it is twice as large, and represents several key factors...

Thursday, June 22, 2017 5:03:44 PM America/Denver

Continued from part 1.

In 2007, a jet was confiscated in Mexico that contained over $100 million worth of cocaine. The information from this raid showed that Wachovia, then the fourth largest bank in the United States, was used as a gateway to launder up to $378 billion through the U.S. banking system. This is an example of how relaxed financial laws in the United States, in addition to our large economy, create conditions that easily make the U.S. the recipient of up to a third of the world’s money laundered from illicit activities.

Thursday, June 15, 2017 4:58:53 PM America/Denver

Roughly 1 to 2 trillion dollars are embezzled around the world every single year, according to experts, who estimate that between 2-5% of global GDP is laundered money. In terms of where this money is laundered, the United States makes up for a significant portion of laundered money.

One particular reason for this is that our financial institutions are large enough to hide large sums of money in, and the oversight of those institutions is particularly relaxed, even after the amendments to the Bank Secrecy Act were made in 2001, following 9/11. In the past decade, one particular case stands out that highlights the nefarious underbelly of money laundering in United States, and it all started with Wachovia...

Thursday, June 8, 2017 6:21:47 PM America/Denver

In order for Iraq’s economy to truly start to replenish is for the infrastructure across the country to be rebuilt. Without infrastructure, the necessary systems to function in a modern economy are simply not going to be in place. To address this very imminent need, the government of Iraq has put into place a five year rebuilding plan that will hopefully allow many local economies that have been destroyed to be able to flourish, again.

Thursday, June 1, 2017 6:12:33 PM America/Denver

Every handful of years, a large debate over the basis of our financial systems crops up, with calls yearning for a return to the gold standard, where all paper money was backed up by a tangible resource, such as gold. At first glance, there might be some reason to these appeals. After all, gold has a lot more inherent value than mere paper money in a fiat currency system, and locking the value of the dollar to the value of gold could theoretically stabilize the currency. However, these beliefs overlook an entire host of facts and ignore some key foundational truths. Here are just a few reasons why the gold standard can’t work, and never will...

Saturday, October 22, 2016 10:47:37 PM America/Denver

PART 4

The recent UK referendum to leave the EU, or Brexit, as it is frequently known, represents shifting tides in many geopolitical arenas. This series is devoted to looking at the many possibilities that this could represent to the Middle East, in particular, and what it means for the stabilization of countries in that region.

Free skies agreement ends

Many of the wealthier countries in the Middle East, especially the Gulf countries of Kuwait, Bahrain, and Jordan, benefit from the free skies agreement in the European Union. London’s strategic significance as a major investment capital provided a major network of commerce that many nations from the region had been able to benefit from. Commerce increases with free movement, especially through the sky. Airlines in the gulf countries are now concerned because the UK’s exit from the EU means that this agreement will need to be renegotiated, and will certainly provide more restrictions that will suffocate business between connecting nations and London.

Saturday, October 22, 2016 10:42:06 PM America/Denver

PART 3

The recent UK referendum to leave the EU, or Brexit, as it is frequently known, represents shifting tides in many geopolitical arenas. This series is devoted to looking at the many possibilities that this could represent to the Middle East, in particular, and what it means for the stabilization of countries in that region.

Continuing Islamophobia

As said before, there was a very pronounced anti-refugee sentiment behind the Brexit movement. In particular, it has been directed towards muslims who have taken refuge in London, and other parts of the UK. The peacekeeping efforts in the Middle East that have been pushed by the EU could entirely unravel if the populations of Europe continue to hate their neighbors to the south. Prolonged peace is often only possible when it is attached to the freedom of human movement, which is something that anti-refugee and anti-immigrant policies will greatly restrict. If Brexit is an indication that a broader movement against these people is bound to sweep across Europe, then the lives of millions of people from the Middle East will be thrown into question. This could greatly induce further unrest in the region.

Saturday, October 8, 2016 10:36:07 PM America/Denver

PART 2

The recent UK referendum to leave the EU, or Brexit, as it is frequently known, represents shifting tides in many geopolitical arenas. This series is devoted to looking at the many possibilities that this could represent to the Middle East, in particular, and what it means for the stabilization of countries in that region.

Isolationist policies decrease foreign investment

The global economy is dependent upon trade deals set up by different entities. This is what allows countries to share in commerce, and has given to the rise of economic globalism. When the UK voted to exit the EU, it lost its right to any trade deals that Europe has created as a singular purchasing power (the EU was the largest entity in the world, when measured by purchasing power parity). However, due to the increasingly nationalistic tendencies of part of the population, it is likely that further actions will play into the same isolationist mentality. Since movement of commerce is often associated with movement of labor (or people), as it is in the rest of Europe (the Schengen Zone), this may hamper the ability for the UK and many Gulf countries in the Middle East, which are heavily entangled, financially, to benefit from trade agreements.